UAlbany’s Brown promises changes next season

This isn’t intended to be a post-mortem on UAlbany’s season, not with Sunday’s regular-season finale at UMBC and the America East Tournament still to be played.

But UAlbany coach Will Brown did talk Friday about the makeup of his team and changes he’ll have to make to be successful next season.

It began with Brown talking about his team’s “raw talent.”

“Basketball talent-wise, we’re not as talented as some of the other teams in the league, as far as basketball talent,” Brown said. “But we have some good raw talent that’s got to continue to develop.”

That led me to ask Brown whether he feels he has the right players, or more accurately, the right mix of players that will help the Great Danes get back on top in the America East next season.

“That’s something we really have to evaluate once the season is over, as far as pieces of the puzzle,” Brown said. “You can have talent, you can have raw talent, but you might not have the best mix of talent, and that’s something we really don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

That said, Brown did mention two specific changes he’s looking into making next season:

1). Moving freshman Anthony Raffa from point guard to shooting guard. “Have him be a combo guard and and so he doesn’t have to worry about running an offense and we can let him worry about making shots, which is what he prefers to do,” Brown said.

UAlbany fans might remember that Brown did something similar with Jamar Wilson early in his junior year when Wilson was struggling at the point. The move helped UAlbany win two America East titles, although obviously, Raffa is a different player than Wilson.

2.) Making junior Will Harris into a full-time power forward next season. Harris started at small forward for much of the year, but has been wildly inconsistent with both his jump shot and his overall play. He missed 17 3-pointers in a row before making one against New Hampshire on Wednesday.

“We brought Raffa in with the intention of him being a full-time point guard,” Brown said. “We brought Will in with the intention of him being a big wing player. But we had to do what we thought was best this year. There are some adjustments that we’re definitely going to make moving forward, and those are probably two things in the back of my mind that could benefit us greatly and make us a much better team.”

Brown said he’s also counting on continued improvement from sophomore guard Tim Ambrose, the team’s leading scorer, who’s been bothered greatly by the team’s struggles.

“After the (UNH) game, Timmy especially was very upset and down,” Brown said. “It makes me feel good because he really cares. Him and I have been working very closely the past month. He really wants to be a very good player. The fact he’s taking these losses personally and hard is going to help him become a better player.”

And it’s worth nothing that next season, UAlbany will presumably have the services of highly touted guard Logan Aronhalt and center Jake Lindfors, who both redshirted this season – Aronhalt with a broken foot, Lindfors for developmental reasons.

Mark Singelais

54 Responses

These changes are great and stuff many of us have expressed that he should have done yet messed up. I am happy he admitted he made mistakes, but as far as talent goes, that is his fault and I am happy he is finally beginning to admit this.

He still has a huge problem. Michael Johnson is not a good starting point guard. Unless he magically improves over the summer, Albany is still going to struggle at that position. If I am correct, Watts who is the kid coming in, is also not a point guard. So where does Brown think this PG who can run this team is coming from? Logan Aronhalt, another talented shooter who isn’t a PG…it seems to me that Brown has made an extremely costly mistake that can take a couple of years to undo. Unless he picks up one late by cutting McRae or something, this team still isn’t going to become that much better at offense without someone credible running the offense, something they don’t have.

I am sure the usual Brown supporters will be coming in to knock me after this post, but it proves the guy simply doesn’t get it with this team and still has put himself in a massive hole going forward into next year. If he doesn’t right the ship next year, I don’t see anyway possible that he can remain the coach of this program. These are simple mistakes no coach should make (every coach knows you need a legitimate PG). Too many shooters on this team going forward next year and not enough guys that can create and that is a problem.

So lets think about this for a second….moving Raffa to the 2 is what he wants correct? That being said, doesnt that create a log jam at that position? Logan, Watts, Allen, Louis, Raffa, Ambrose. I count 6 shooting guards. I told you all before that if you brought Raffa in to run the point and he turned out to be a player that just isnt a PG, then you wasted a scholarship on him. They should cut ties with him so he can catch on with another program. Also from a PR stand point, having the kid just leave after he was touted the “point guard of the future” doesnt look good to future recruits down the line.

Shifting Raffa to the 2 spot doesn’t create a 6 player log jam at the position. Ralph Watts is a 6’6″ small forward, Billy Allen is a 6’6″ wing that sometimes plays the 4 spot when we play small and Louis Barraza also often plays the wing. And in this post, Brown said he’d move Will Harris to the 4 next year. Combined with the graduation of Jerel Hastings, that creates an opening at the 3. This is the America East. A lot of teams are effective with 3 guard line-ups.

While Johnson hasn’t displayed much of a scoring game, he’s averaging 2.6apg in just 17.7mpg with a 1.6 a/to ratio. Certainly not bad numbers. So we’re not in a loss for next year. That said, he’ll be a senior next year, so we’ll need an answer after that.

Cut ties with Raffa??? Sure he’s been inconsistant (esp. after spraining his toe) and has been too turnover prone, but he’s a frosh who’s averaging 10.3ppg/3.4rpg/1.9apg. That’s All-Rookie team type numbers! The shooting guard spot would likely allow the team to better take advantage of his talents and help to avoid some of his weaker spots (turnovers).

I have watched…here is the difference, you can get away with it when you have a player of Jamar Wilson’s ability….something this team doesn’t have. If they did, then we wouldn’t have this problem. Jamar could at least create for himself and others with his drive and then finding the open guy or just taking it in himself. Just because he doesn’t recruit them doesn’t mean he is right. They need one!!!!

We at least agree that Johnson isn’t the answer for that position as a full time starter. They need a PG and if that means you have to get rid of McRae to do it then so be it. We haven’t had problems of getting rid of players before and now that the move needs to be made to help the team next year we’ll see what he does. Frankly he should dump Gifford, he brings Albany nothing where at least when McRae played he did something. But we all know Brown won’t do that since he hasn’t already and probably won’t come to his senses now.

Watts is not that good a PG…and he is also going to be a freshman, which is really tough to ask of a kid just getting in when it’s not his true position. If Logan can play it that would be helpful but they might as well get a freshman PG who plays the position truly game in and out in H.S. and hope it works.

When did collegiate athletics become like the NBA…he doesn’t produce so DUMP him! It’s education first, win college basketball games second. You do not dump a kid who is going to be a senior just because he hasn’t produced. Sure you’d hope to win games and have the STUDENT athletes get their education but we can do both.

When a kid leaves the program for more playing time or switches sports everyone and their mother screams….he runs kids off. Now some WANT him to run kids off because they aren’t putting up the numbers.

bosiydid, you can look at me all you want. Yeah he runs people off that he doesn’t like for whatever reason and that actually produce and yet the guy that doesn’t produce for three years and shows no future whatsoever is staying and not to mention starting. Again, I am saying if you were going to take a scholarship from someone to get a PG that would ideally be the person to be, not McRae, but you obviously didn’t get my post. I am not saying let’s cut Gifford right now. Again read the post buddy it’s if we are going to dump someone to bring a PG on board for next year.

Got news for you on the education front. It was thrown away a while ago whether you like it or not to bring programs money and sponsors. Go ask around and find out what life as a student athlete is really like. You think Bingy is the only place with these issues, ha!

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Coach Browns teams have won the last TWO academic titles. And what is this “future” you are talking about. None of these kids have a “future” on the basketball court, their future is in the corporate world working for a living, like countless kids before them. Like the NCAA commercial point’s out, most of these kids will go pro in something other then basketball.

So to understand this better, you think that a two time NJ All State selection is going to go from a starter his freshman year to coming off the bench and back up Ambrose his Soph, and Jr year?? Get a grip man, the more i think about it, the more it becomes common sense that the kid is gonna leave.

Once again Bosiydid, thanks for twisting my words. I never said everyone falls under the education problem, but more and more schools do. Hell we have 2 recruits over the last 2 years that were delayed a year because they didn’t qualify academically. But man are we really good academically for the AE. You also know our basketball team doesn’t have a good graduation rate right? It’s around 68% which is pretty bad don’t you think, but that is for another day.

As far as the future thing goes. Your an idiot because you know I am only talking about the basketball court and that is it. Gifford will be fine in the “real” world but my issue is what he does on the court because he is a starter. This is a basketball blog and that is what we discuss. You know you lost the argument much like you lost the Brown argument way back when you said he was right and I was wrong only to have Brown tell you himself he needed to change. It’s cool though, keep up your arguments because they are fun to defeat and then watch you go to something else.

So let me get this straight, you can recruit a player who doesn’t want to learn or doesn’t really find it as a priority, you kick him out and then he never gets his act together but somehow it shouldn’t be a knock on Ualbany for getting the kid in the first place. Sorry, things don’t work like that and that is why the Graduation rate is judged correctly. I am very happy for the team and their GPA but what is a GPA worth when your not graduating a high percentage of your players that you bring in. That certainly needs to be considered as well when looking at the big scheme of things.

I actually wasn’t aware of Raffa’s disease and if that is the case then under no circumstance should he be mentioned under this discussion.

It’s funny though somehow people continue to twist my words. All I said was we have our own academic issues like Bingy has theirs. You can take that to mean whatever you want and I am not going to air out stuff that was told to me by players themselves. I am happy you graduated Dane Supporter it is certainly much harder on student athletes then the average student like myself. But let’s not pretend here there aren’t shortcuts among other things taken by some. But then again you may want to believe whatever you want to believe.

As far as the PG situation goes, If Watts can play the spot then fine, but they are going to need a full time PG if he is spotty because Johnson isn’t a starter at the PG spot unless he improves greatly over the summer. I am not really sure why this wasn’t addressed this year during recruiting unless Watts really can play the PG….

Joe F get a clue you talk about Abrose like he is it. They are 6-5 with him as the leading scorer / and they are 6-2 with Raffa as the leading scorer , guess what the losses were (Nova/ Kansas) Maybe the ball should go to Raffa more, Brown is in his head all the time LET THE KID PLAY.Brown is just too set in his ways. They have some really good players, the coach is the one to figure it out.

After today’s game….we NEED a full time point if that fact hasn’t been clear before today. Mike put up 0pts, 3rb, 2ast and 2to’s. I am in full agreement with UA Fan, bring in a PG should a scholarship become available or things won’t get much better. Not having someone who can run the team on the floor and be an extension of the coach has been a huge problem on the court.

Enough with guys who can “maybe” play spot minutes at the point or guys that could be “made” into a point. Stop fooling around and go RECRUIT a true PG. Look at what Trimboli does at UVM, Moore at Siena etc. Stop trying to shove a round peg into a square hole. If there is no scholarship available for the ’09 season then make a legitimate PG your number one priority in the ’10 class. The Raffa experiment at point was a failure not because Raffa couldn’t do it, he’s a good kid but because it probably should have never been attempted.

I think this season was a very important one for CB, he’s still relatively young as a coach, I would expect that he recognizes his mistake and that he know exactly what he needs to do to fix it. Let’s hope so for the sake of all involved.

Reading through this (somewhat heated) discussion, I think everyone here is still mostly missing the real problem.

The problem is with Coach Brown. I’ve said it before. He seems to be a micro-managing, nit-picking, nasty-acting coach, who, in my estimation, grinds down his players to a level of under-performance bordering on abuse!

I question his recruiting, and then I further question his teaching and guidance. If he is recruiting players with problems, it is his job to work with them and help them overcome those problems. If he is recruiting talented players who can play (which I think he has some!) then he , as their coach, is stripping them of their ability and desire to play.

I could be wrong, and hope I am, but he is the ‘manager’. If there are problems, they are his fault, and not to be blamed on the players, which is something he attempts to do at every turn. Instead of guiding them better and helping them, he seems to run a dictatorship that drains their abilities.

I would still like to know why Scotty was suspended. Does anyone know? He showed promise, for sure.

As far as Raffa is concerned, I saw great attitude and heart at the beginning of the season, coupled with lots of success for an incoming freshman. But, game by game, I saw that heart and ‘can do’ attitude wane under the tutelage and control of this coach. I watched him start to look anxiously at the coach as he brought the ball up every possession, clearly looking to see what the coach wanted. Not a good way to have to play.

I see three more years of unnecessary pain with Coach B at the helm. Three more years of tension, confusion and decreasing accomplishment. I don’t see any way any other school will come looking to take him off our hands. Jamar Wilson gave him his window of opportunity!